Inmates incarcerated within U.S. prisons and other types of controlled-environment facilities are potentially subject to violence on a daily basis. In some cases, a single violent act may target a specific prisoner. For example, a hostage situation may develop within the prison between a captor and another inmate, prison staff, visitor, etc.
In other cases, violence may be caused by and/or otherwise affect a relatively larger portion of the inmate population, resulting in bodily harm or death to its victims as well as significant property damage to the prison. For example, in 2006 at the North County Correctional Facility in California, a riot resulted in one inmate killed and over one hundred injured. On Aug. 21, 2009 at the Northpoint Training Center in Kentucky, an inmate uprising involving approximately 80 inmates resulted in 5 buildings completely burned down.
Despite these types of events, communication systems deployed within prisons are generally not suited for handling emergency situations. For example, inmate telephones within prisons do not have access to 911 services, often cannot be used to directly connect inmates to prison administration or response personnel, and are also not capable of receiving inbound calls. In light of these, and other identified concerns, the inventors hereof have recognized a need for providing emergency communications within controlled-environment facilities.